Gabon votes on a post-coup constitution that would strengthen the presidency

# Gabon votes on a post-coup constitution that would strengthen the presidency

Gabonese voters have gone to the polls on a new constitution that could reshape the country’s politics after the 2023 coup, with the draft replacing the existing semi-presidential system with a more powerful presidency and setting out tighter rules for who can run for the top office.

The referendum is a central part of the transition promised by the military leadership that seized control in August 2023, ending the Bongo dynasty’s long grip on power. Soldiers removed Ali Bongo after he had been poised to seek a third term, bringing to an end a political era that began when his father, Omar Bongo, took office in 1967 and continued through Ali Bongo’s own presidency from 2009. The coup ended 56 years of family rule and opened a new transition whose credibility now depends in part on how the referendum is received.

According to the draft constitution described in the report, the new system would create a strong presidency with a seven-year term that can be renewed once, eliminate the post of prime minister and give the president authority to appoint judges and dissolve parliament. The proposed text also says candidates for head of state must have at least one Gabonese-born parent, hold no other nationality and be married to a Gabonese citizen. Those conditions are likely to be controversial because they narrow the field to a very specific idea of national belonging.

The draft also includes a mix of liberalising and restrictive provisions. It would expand some civil and political liberties, while also defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and allowing for mandatory military service. It further calls for a national holiday to mark the downfall of the Bongo dynasty, according to media reports cited by AFP.

Supporters inside the transition argue that the proposed constitution is the product of the national dialogue convened earlier this year by military leader General Brice Oligui Nguema. Political scientist Douglas Yates said the proposal contains many positive elements and reflects that national dialogue’s attempt to define the duration and shape of the post-military transition. He also said many Gabonese have had enough of dynastic rule, and that family members of any new president would not be able to inherit the presidency or hold other important offices.

That is the political promise of the referendum: to turn a military takeover into a constitutional reset. But it is still a referendum with high stakes, because the draft does not only redistribute power. It also seeks to define who counts as legitimately Gabonese enough to compete for power, and what kind of political order should replace the old one.

The referendum comes in a country where oil wealth has not prevented entrenched inequality and where the Bongo family’s dominance had become the defining feature of politics. The military takeover was justified as the end of dynastic succession, but the new constitution could simply replace one kind of concentration of power with another if checks and balances prove weak in practice.

The final outcome of the vote will determine whether the transition advances toward civilian rule or whether it becomes another step in a managed political redesign from above. Even before results are announced, the referendum has already shown that Gabon’s post-coup transition is not just about ending a dynasty. It is about deciding what sort of republic comes next, and who gets to define it.